Oscars 2015: Which Film Deserves to Win Best Picture?

February 21, 2015 12:15 AM

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JUSTIN CHANG: We don’t always agree, Guy (no two critics ever should), but it’s safe to say we’ve been more simpatico than usual over the course of this very long and happily almost-over awards season. I think we would both argue, for example, that “Foxcatcher” was ridiculously worthy of an Oscar nomination for best picture, and that its failure to nab one seems all the more inexplicable given that Bennett Miller managed to crack the much more competitive directing race. Likewise, I don’t know anyone else who had almost precisely the same reaction and counter-reaction to “Birdman” as I did — an initial thrill that almost completely fell apart for me on second viewing.

Clearly the industry feels otherwise, if “Birdman’s” presumed-Oscar frontrunner status is to be believed — which I fear it is, even as some of us are still clinging desperately to the hope that “Boyhood” will prevail. Whichever one of these two critically lauded auteur passion projects ends up winni...